


Meeting Luke at Last

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: For Family [14]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Complicated Relationships, Family Reunions, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 20:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7522231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke is taken to the <i>Exactor</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting Luke at Last

Vader was waiting in his state room with Leia at his side. The ship had docked, and both of them felt the bright, almost painfully so, addition to the Force as the boy was brought aboard. Ahsoka seemed restrained in her presence, but he would determine the reasons for that later. Leia was on her feet before the door opened, eager to meet this boy she had seen on so many nights.

Ahsoka and Rex stopped at the door to let Luke enter ahead of them, They then slipped to the side, staying back… but Ahsoka wasn't willing to risk the children to any accidents, and was staying, until she saw how Luke handled all of this.

"My name is Luke Skywalker," the boy said firmly, and Vader smiled beneath the mask. His beloved mother's name lived on, and the boy was able to overcome his nerves.

"I am Leia Organa… your sister," Leia said warmly, moving to greet him by taking his hands. The way the Force flowed between them only confirmed what she knew, impossibly, in her soul. This was her twin!

Taking her hands was like grabbing a live wire -- except the current didn't hurt at all. It was just... there, running into him, through him, and back to her. Luke couldn't take his eyes from how impossibly beautiful she was, and he _knew_ her, down to his bones. "Yes," he agreed, soft, nodding slightly as he spoke, only half meaning to say the next words, "I've dreamed about you..." 

"I've been dreaming of you as well," Leia told him softly, before guiding him closer to the chair Vader was in. "Luke, this is the man that fathered us," she introduced, taking full charge of her brother and the situation. Vader's heart felt clenched in his chest; she was so much like her mother. Bail and Breha had done well, raising Padmé's daughter.

"Call me Vader, for now," the man told Luke, well aware his new appearance was not anything that the boy could have expected. "I am pleased you carry your grandmother's name," he added as he looked the boy over.

Fair-haired, as he'd been under Tatooine's suns. Light-eyed as well, making a contrast to Leia's darker coloring. The boy was dressed in simple but well-cared for farm clothing, a style that hadn't changed in so very long… and he carried a lightsaber. Not just any lightsaber at that, for the crystal inside the hilt had a faint, familiar ping against his senses.

They would have to correct that, allow Luke to build his own, or re-attune the crystal to meet his own needs.

Luke hadn't been able to look anywhere but Leia first, everything he was drawn to her like they were magnets, but her hold on him and the tug did make him focus outside the two of them. It was easy to follow her, even to come to stand in front of a man he'd never believed he could meet. 

He knew he was being appraised, and he looked back. There was a weight to that gaze, to not being able to see the eyes on him, that half made him want to hide -- and that want had him standing his ground hard. The words, though, those made him smile, half duck his head. "Uncle Owen made sure, I guess. He didn't talk about her much... but I wish I could have met her, from what he did say."

The armor or bodysuit didn't look anything like the images he'd seen of 'Darth Vader', but... well, armor and weapons and everything changed. It was a kind of steel blue, highlighted in deep orange, and the lenses were a flat gleaming black that was unsettling. 

Attention at his hip? "...oh," Luke said, startled, realizing what the reason must be, "this -- this is yours, right? Do you -- " 

"No. It is yours. Though it will need to be corrected for you, if you intend to keep it instead of making another," Vader told him, attention moving briefly to Ahsoka, getting a wordless agreement from her. It went without saying that he was expecting his former padawan to handle much of the twins' training in Force basics.

Leia looked at the lightsaber, then back up at Luke. "You are more than welcome to keep that thing; I like my blaster." She wasn't so certain about learning to use the Force for violence, but was very intrigued by the other applications. 

"So you do call Owen your uncle," Vader mused. "I only met him once, but he was respectful toward my mother's memory during that visit."

Luke snorted at Leia's words, shrugging one shoulder, "I don't know if I'll be any good with it, but I guess we'll find out," and then Vader-- his father, their father -- was speaking again, and he focused on him. Of course he called them uncle and aunt, what else would he say? 

"They're the only family I've had," he said, "until now, anyway." He squeezed his sister's fingers, incredulous delight running through him. "He never really spoke of you.... but I guess that makes sense, if he didn't really know you." 

Vader nodded briefly. "I am pleased to see you have grown strong, Luke." He appreciated that the boy looked him straight in the face, that he carried himself confidently. It reminded him… of himself, standing before the Council. The association wasn't as unpleasant as a normal Anakin memory. "You will come with us to Coruscant, to learn more of your heritage?"

Ahsoka wanted to cheer her _ori'vod_ for that rising note of asking, instead of making it a flat command. She looked at Leia… and the girl seemed to understand why Luke got the choice when she had not been allowed one. The situations were completely different, with Luke safe to claim whereas Leia had to be made safe.

Luke had ducked his head a little at the praise, but then there was that question, and -- 

" _Coruscant_?" Oh, blast, he hated when his voice did that, but at least it had been startled and not shaking, shock sliding through and over him. "Really?" 

The heart of the Republic, the center of the Empire? A Coreworld? _The_ Coreworld, really, and their father wanted -- 

"I want you to come with us, Luke," Leia said. "I want to know you, to have my twin there while I wrestle with the Senate, and all that still needs to be done. Our birth-father has given us a chance to make things right again… and I would like to have your support."

Vader felt a swell of pride in Padmé's daughter for that, for the acknowledgment of what he had done for _her_ , let alone the galaxy. "You would be welcome, and have training in anything you chose. I believe you enjoy piloting?" he asked.

"I want to come," Luke replied instantly, looking at his sister, then their father. Right, Rex had said she was a Senator. A Senator, his sister. He took a breath, looking out at the star field he'd dreamed of being in all his life, "I _absolutely_ want to come with you. 

"I already left Aunt and Uncle, because Ben thought I was in danger... it's not really any different if I go farther, I guess. I just want to let them know I'm safe." //And to help them, they need me... but this is what I've always wanted, except even better...// "And yeah. I love to fly. Anything I can get my hands on." 

"That's familiar," Ahsoka whispered to Rex, amused by the boy. "We're going to be peeling them both out of the ships on a regular basis."

"You will be; I'm smart enough not to get in the way," the man told her, but this felt right, seeing the clan enlarge.

Vader nodded. "I will see to delivering a message and comm unit to the farm, Luke, so you may easily contact them as you wish."

Leia smiled softly at that; to her, one of the most amazing parts of growing to know Vader was that he honestly did not wish to take away her existing family ties. He had merely made room for himself in her life.

And it still boggled her mind, having grown up hating him, how much she wanted him to succeed on his new path.

Luke almost boggled at that. A comm unit. On the farm. A real comm unit? Those were worth the cost of a dozen skyhoppers, and Vader said it would be done so casually. As though it was nothing. "I... okay. Thank you!" It wouldn't make up for him not being there, but... he wanted this, wanted it _so_ badly. "...I feel like I'm running out on them," he admitted, quiet, "now that it's not about keeping them safe." 

"You will not be 'running out' on them," Vader assured him. "Captain Rex, requisition two menial droids to be programed for vaporator maintenance and moisture farming, to be delivered with the comm unit."

"Yes, sir," Rex said, slipping free of his wife to go get those readied.

"Will that aid Owen well enough?" Vader asked, conscious of not wishing to leave the boy's family in the lurch as his own leaving had endangered Shmi.

Two almost-new droids? With all of the right programming already installed? 

Luke nodded, overwhelmed, his fingers tightening on Leia's hand next to him to stay steady. Droids weren't human, couldn't get to some of the places he could, or think their way to solutions... but if they were strong, and durable, they'd save Uncle Owen a lot of labor and time. "I... yeah. That should... be a lot of help." 

And he'd make sure to tell Uncle to sell the speeder. With all of the mods he'd made, it was worth a good bit more than they'd first paid for it, and it wasn't as though he needed it now. Some other kid ought to have it. 

"Welcome to the _aliit_ ," Ahsoka said, joining them now that Rex had left from keeping her warm along the side of the chamber.

"Oh, you're going to need to learn Mando'a," Leia said as that word reminded her. "Else you'll miss half the conversations she and Vader and Rex have."

Vader made an exasperated sound at that. "It's Ahsoka's fault for imprinting on the clones," he said, letting his amusement come through.

Ahsoka snorted, flicking her fingers at him, and looked at Luke with a quirk of her mouth. "I can't exactly deny that," she admitted. "And _aliit_ is as good a place to start as any. It means either tribe, family, or clan... and what was I supposed to do? I got pulled out of Clawmouse Clan and bounced to you, and there was a clan waiting right there for me!" 

That sounded like a longstanding debate, and Luke didn't poke his head into it, just filing away 'aliit' for 'family'. 

Leia leaned in so her lips were at his ear. "Apparently Togruta are a clan-oriented people to begin with," she said, to help clarify, smiling as she said it. When she pulled back, she was still smiling. "You'll stay in my cabin with me, Luke, for the trip back. If you don't mind?"

He was her twin, the missing piece inside her soul, and to think she might never have known him made her ache. She wanted to take care of him, prepare him for Coruscant, and find out all about him.

Vader did not protest this plan; he would have the time while Leia was in Senate sessions to truly explore who the young man was. 

"How could I mind?" Luke asked, blinking at her once, head tilting a little, baffled. Of course he wanted to be with her, to get to know her... To learn how to control the sense of her that was so strong in his mind that it was more in his heart, and find out everything he could.

Her smile softened for him, and her fingers twined in his. Yes, her twin, and she was going to keep him safe.

Vader was very pleased, watching the Force practically solidify between them, creating a bond that would help them protect one another. With Ahsoka to teach them, and himself to add to that… Padmé's children would never be slaves or victims.

" _Ori'vod_ , you were asked for, on the planet," Ahsoka told him, having slipped up onto the arm of his chair, figuring this was the most peaceful he was going to be, and therefore the safest moment to tell him.

The anger was caught and held tight, before it could disturb the twins, proving her instincts correct. "I had thought so," he told her quietly. "I feel a pull to finish business there. I will take the droids and equipment myself, to speak to Owen Lars." //And Kenobi.//

"Alright," Ahsoka said, flicking a glance towards the quiet Noghri in their near-invisible waiting, wondering if he would take any of them with him. She was so proud of him, for controlling himself, for that he was steady, and she nodded. "I... may have yelled at him some?

"Okay, okay, I yelled a lot." 

He reached up to pet her montrals, rubbing just the way she preferred. "Ahsoka, you would not be you if you had not." 

Leia glanced over, shook her head, because it still broke her mind a little that the very deadly warrior of that fight outside the tower was basically an overgrown lothcat. "Vader, I'm going to take Luke and show him around now," she said, not asking permission. She was learning, slowly, where to be firm at him, and when to show just the right amount of softness, to get her way most every time.

"Good. I will be attending business soon, anyway."

Leia's Noghri were already moving to escort, and at a handsign from their savior, two more joined them for the boy. Leia squeezed Luke's hand to reassure him; she would explain their guards later to him.


End file.
